The social contrast in Athens was not so big that soldiers of fortune even dared to attempt to establish a tyranny. The main reason for this was that the Pireaus remained the place for Greek trade during the fourth century, and that there was no mass unemployment in Athens: only 5000 of the 30000 mature male citizens did not own any land.

Still, there was also an economical setback in Athens. One of the consequences of this was a separation between civil and military life, as the strategos gained more independence. A strategos was placed in a difficult position if the city could not, or would not support her mercenaries. As chosen commander he was sent out on a special assignment by the people's council, and he was held responsible for success or failure. Because of lack of money he was forced to either pay a part of the pay himself, or to take the liberty of changing or ignoring the mission himself. Such an action could be justified by returning to the Polis with a lot of treasury, or by hiring a professional orator like Demosthenes or Isocrates. These people acted as the spokesmen of the strategos during meetings of the people's council in Athens, and defended his interests against those who saw an undermining of the democracy in the methods of the strategos. The financial problems in Athens eroded the importance of the democracy, and this bad influence only became worse with the increasing difference in income.

Possible solutions.

With the end of the Social War in 355 the situation had become favourable for the pacifists. The argument of the neo-imperialists that money should be invested before Athens could gain anything from a new empire did no longer seem reasonable: the costs were way too high while there were no profits whatsoever. The alternative was minimizing the costs, avoiding war as much as possible, and fighting the economical and financial problems by optimal exploitation and redistribution of the private resources.

The most obvious way to increase the wealth of Athens was increasing the production of the silvermines in Laurium. The production was only partially restarted after it was totally stopped during the Spartan occupation of Deceleia in 413. The reason was that potential claimholders rather invested in activities which supported the neo-imperialistic policy, or in liturgies in the social-religious atmosphere which gave immediate prestige and political influence. The final collapse, after a short revival in the years from 355 till 330, was because of the problems in the import of grain which made it more profitable to invest in the corn-trade.

A second way to increase the public revenue was by providing more facilities for the trade in general. Several steps were made concerning commercial laws, and the legal status of metoiks, resulting in a less distinct difference between these metoiks and the citizens of Athens. Especially the last step was important as taxes and trade would increase if more metoiks decided to settle down in Athens. Minimizing the expenditures of the city proved to be almost impossible, they even increased when an attempt was made to end the poverty and political apathy among the lowest classes by installing an attendance fee. On top of this were payments made to the poor people in the form of theorika. Originally these theorika were meant to enable every citizen to attend the festivals in the theatres, but during the middle of the fourth century a law was created which said that all surplus of public money had to be used in favour of the poorest classes.

A gap between rich and poor.

However, after a while the positive results of the Athenian policy of avoiding peace were diminished as they were forced to invest money in the army again. After the installment of the Corinthian League in 338 peace was the only solution though. Thanks to the careful policy of Lycurgus the expenditures of Athens increased again, but this time the upper classes refused to cooperate in a levelling of the income with simultaneous preservation of the democracy. Rich soon became a synonym for 'pro-Macedon' and 'oligarch'. The Athenian democracy was finally liquidated in 321 by Macedon after a revolt in 323 and 322 under the leadership of the imperialist Demosthenes.